Florence and the Medici Bankers

At its height Renaissance Florence was a center of enormous wealth, power and influence. A republican city-state funded by trade and banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici. From relatively modest beginnings, the Medici became bankers to rich and powerful families in Europe and bankers to the Pope. But perhaps their most enduring legacy and for which the world owes the Medici a debt of gratitude is their patronage of the arts. Artists such as Brunelleschi, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, and Michelangelo all thrived under Medici patronage. Join Renaissance art historian, Elaine Ruffolo as she charts the family’s influence on the political, economic, and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, to the golden era under Lorenzo il Magnifico, to the family’s ultimate goal; a Papal tiara.